The Measure in Your Hand

God is calling you higher, but you can't do anything about that.

No, you can't.

I don't care how tough you are, how ambitious you are,

how much you sharpened your elbows and achieved on your own.

You cannot achieve holiness on your own.

It requires the grace of God.

It requires strength from above.

It's not a behavioral modification thing from the outside in.

It's a heart transformation thing from the inside out, amen?

Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com

that's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit

is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God,

that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

It is so good to see you.

I joked in the first service about the church within the church.

Have you heard a theory in Revelation? There's a woman.

She's running. She has a child.

The woman being the church, but then she has a child.

That's the church within a church.

I've always suspected in any church there is a church within a church and you wonder who really is?

The true church within the church, but on Memorial Day, we can you find out.

Because the church is here and then the outside church is watching online.

Just kidding. Just kidding.

Hallelujah.

Oh, thank you, worship team.

Thank you so much.

Sorry, I just turned around.

They were all looking at me very intently.

That was it, right?

All right.

For now, okay.

Praise God.

Hey, we got something awesome happening here.

Next weekend, David Wagner is going to be with us.

And he's going to be with us Friday night right here.

There'll be no hopping to the little house in the prairie, secondary location.

Saturday night, he's going to be with us here.

And Sunday, he's going to be with us for two services.

Make it a point to be in every one of those services.

He is a prophet.

You've never heard me call someone that.

And you know why I call him that?

Because he never calls himself that.

No, he's never, ever called him that.

He lets other people do it.

So if you meet prophets so and so who has a colossal Facebook ministry,

and you are skeptical, be skeptical, that's good.

I mean, there's people who start off their conversations,

announcing they're an apostle, they're a prophet.

I immediately know.

You are not exactly that, which you claim to be.

Exactly what's on your business card that you got printed out for 39 cents at the kinkos.

That's exactly what you're not.

But David Wagner really is.

And we've asked them to not just minister prophetically to you,

but to teach on how the simple gift of prophecy works.

And the simple gift of prophecy, something that every believer could operate in.

We're supposed to be a prophetic people.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will tell you things to come.

That means we shouldn't be caught surprised.

We shouldn't be caught unaware.

The Holy Spirit goes before us and shows us what's around the corner.

Nothing that's happening in my life right now is shocking.

I had an inkling.

I knew in my spirit.

I could taste it.

Then I could taste it even more.

At first it was a blurry image.

Then it's solidified even more.

Then I would check back with the Lord and that would be even stronger.

And then it would materialize.

That's how the Lord leads us.

One of the many ways he leads us and he guides us.

So he's going to be teaching on that.

So it's a wonderful time

to learn how to hear from the Lord,

because that actually is the number one statistically,

the number one question that pastors have in this country.

Maybe in other countries, but the survey was just for the United States.

I reckon to say and venture to say it's the whole world.

The number one question pastors get from congregants is,

how can I know the will of God for myself?

So really what's behind that is a cry and insecurity.

I'm not sure that I hear from the Lord accurately.

I'm not sure that I can touch into the spirit realm

that I can touch on the prophetic accurately

what we want you to be able to do it and do it right

and do it accurately and prayerfully with minimal casualties.

Amen.

Because we can learn from our mistakes also.

But we had him, it was 2019, was the last time he was here.

And I had to get together.

You know when I think about that, get together.

I always think that that was one of your first times

doing something city light related.

And I have videos of that get together at our house.

And good night, Heidi, you were a different person.

You know, you didn't know what you were in for.

You were brand new.

You know, we have like 25 people jammed into our living room.

Sean is on his guitar.

David Wagner is ministering to people and

I just, sorry, I just, what the Lord has done, huh?

So if you ever see somebody sitting in a meeting like this,

just know that that can happen shortly after.

Amen.

But anyway, he comes up to my wife and he starts

prophesying something where immediately when he started,

I thought, there he goes, I knew it.

Don't trust these prophetic characters.

They're going to mess you up.

He was talking about something I had never considered before.

It actually bothered me because he was prophesying over my wife

and not me.

And he started prophesying.

He said, the Lord has a country home for you.

And he has a, he said, he has a country home

where you'll be able to garden.

And he described it all.

And he said, the Lord has a hideout from you for you.

And I thought there's about 10 things

that I really want from the Lord right now.

And a country home is not even number 11.

It's like number 72.

I'm very happy in Brooklyn.

And when people visit a country home usually,

it's a weekend getaway.

Well, my weekends are a little booked.

So when, you know, I have kids who go to school,

when will I visit this country?

Home, I don't want one.

The next year, in a matter of weeks, things change.

And I find myself right in June of 2020,

right when the real estate markets opened up again,

getting at a bargain basement price,

a country home.

I wasn't even looking for one.

It fell into our lap and get this.

The community that it's in in Lake Aurel, Pennsylvania,

in the Poconos is called the hideout.

And it was a week afterwards.

I'm like, why?

And I listened because I recorded it.

I listened to the prophetic word.

And he said, the Lord has a hideout for you.

Absolutely amazing.

Razor sharp accuracy.

Do not miss this next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Amen.

And that's what I want my prophets to look like.

Look at that.

See a prophet with a beard, a dad shirt, a little bit of,

that's the guy you can trust.

And you don't want somebody in tight jeans,

swirling a bow, looking all slick.

No, that's my prophet right there.

And then the week after that,

we got a volunteer party.

You can play that video in the background.

Just to show that it's not bingo night.

We've done volunteer parties all over the place.

The last two times we rented,

it's not fair to call it a boat.

It's a little bit exaggerating to call it a yacht.

But I think we can call it a barge.

We got the love barge.

That's not it.

That's just our security detail.

Floating beside us.

And so this time we have for everybody

who's a part of our helps ministry,

everybody who's a volunteer,

everybody who's a part of our helps ministry,

everybody who's a volunteer.

We have a rooftop overlooking Manhattan,

right here in Astoria, slash Long Island City.

Make it a part to be a that.

You should have already received

in many invitations and for you to confirm via email.

If for some reason you have volunteered and you haven't,

email info at citylightnyc.com.

And we'll make sure you're a part of that.

Party will have prizes, the NOVA award.

That's our MVP championship award will be presented

along with other awards.

And we're just going to have a great time

of fun, food, and fellowship.

Sound good, church?

Amen.

Well, I want to minister to you a message

called the measure.

The measure in your hand.

We started off 2025.

And we're continuing in that same spirit.

When we started off in 2025,

the word of the Lord to us as a church was,

this is a year of increase.

Amen.

This is a year of breakthrough.

This is a year where the Lord is going to compound your efforts.

This is a year where you're going to be able to look back and say,

look what the Lord has done.

Amen.

A year of increase.

A year of promotion.

And just because it's the fastest month that ever was,

May of 2025.

Wasn't that the fastest month that ever was?

Just started.

We're going to be at the midway point.

Do not lose the word of the Lord that was spoken over our church.

Do not weaken its grip on you in your heart.

That word will get you through.

And so I want to minister along those lines

so that we can all receive of everything that Jesus has for us.

I found from studying the scriptures that God is very, very eager to bless his people.

However, the problem isn't on heaven's end.

It's on our end.

It's on the earthly side in that we don't position ourselves

and don't allow the necessary work of the Holy Spirit to take place in us

so we can withstand the magnitude of his blessing.

I mean, everybody says I can take the blessing until they get the blessing.

That's why when you look at stats, for example, for lottery winners,

many of you have seen the stats, within two years,

they're not just as broke as they were before.

They're broker, because they were given money

so they can get into more debt now.

So they actually end up even worse than how they started.

What happened?

Well, they didn't have the inner grid,

the inner framework to carry that blessing.

And the Lord wants to see you able to contain that blessing.

We were taught in Bible school that the Lord is not in the habit of giving bazooka's

missile launchers, not bubblegum, bazooka's, you know?

Every kid wants a bazooka, every male kid.

Right?

My son would have loved a bazooka three years old, right?

Look, he's not. He's like, yeah, but what you got was a supersoaker instead.

I can't give him bazooka.

Why? He'll blow himself out of the water.

Maybe later, one day in his life, with proper training.

You're going on a different course than that, but maybe.

But some people, they want the Lord to give him a bazooka and they're actually just three years old.

And there is a growth process.

And I want to touch on some important things that the Lord is keeping an eye on in us,

that he wants to change in us so that we could catch what he's pitching.

Amen. So we can receive what he's wanting to give.

Hallelujah. And by the way, none of these things that I'm going to list,

none of those things should you listen to and go, oh, I need to go work on that.

Change is not going to come from you trying, trying really hard.

Change comes from you.

Number one, yes, recognizing there's a discrepancy in your life versus what the word of God

is calling you to. The word of God is calling you higher.

But you can't do anything about that. No, you can't.

I don't care how tough you are, how ambitious you are, how much you've sharpened your elbows

and achieved on your own. You cannot achieve holiness on your own.

It requires the grace of God. It requires strength from above.

It's not a behavioral modification thing from the outside in.

It's a heart transformation thing from the inside out. Amen.

So the answer, if you don't measure up to any of these things, the answer isn't,

what should I do? It's who? And the answer to who is always Jesus.

He's the one who's going to do it in our lives, spending time with him, looking to him,

drawing for him. That works the transformation, but from the inside out.

First Corinthians 4.2.

Moreover, it is required in stewards. That's what we are.

Stewards. What's a steward? Well, they come by the aisle and offer you peanuts and coke, right?

And no, a steward. Are you even allowed to say steward, stewardess anymore?

A steward is someone who manages something for someone else.

And that's what we are. We're stewards of the gifts of God, of the provisions of God.

And so much of the Bible begins to make sense and how the Lord increases people

when you actually see that the Lord will only give you how much you can handle and the Lord wants

to see that He can trust you. When He can trust you, then He'll give you more. And when you've

been faithful in a little, He'll make you ruler over much. I feel like I'm hidden a little bit

of a wall. I don't know if it's the moral day weekend wall or something, but maybe we need to

rewind and just establish some basics first, all right? You ready? God, good, devil bad.

Because I'm talking about abundance and increase here. And some of you look like you got your

mind on Memorial Day brunch already. Let's just align right now, okay? Picture two fields with me.

One field is green and lush and fruitful, just abundant with fruit. And then there's another field

and it's dusty and the ground is compacted and fallow and there's nothing but thorns and

bristles on that ground. Which ground belongs to God? The first one, okay, just want to make sure

we're all at the same place. Some people over spiritualize the dusty ground and they might say,

oh, but you know, maybe the Lord is teaching the dirt a lesson with all those, or no, that's a

forsaken ground, amen? That's a cursed ground. God could still come and make dead bones live,

but which ground reflects the nature of God? It's the lush ground, the abundant ground, the fruitful

ground, because that's his way. That's his very nature. So God is a God of growth. God is not a God

of stagnation. God is a God of increase. God is a God that's moving you somewhere. There are

seasons, seasons. This shouldn't be your life, but there are seasons when you're waiting,

when you're in between God's waves. Have fun in between his waves and make sure you don't create

your own waves in between his waves. And get ready for the next wave.

But know that he has increased mind it. And I'm saying that because there is a lot of

cope in the church world, because people won't receive from heaven. And then they'll make

up a theology for their inability to receive. And they'll spiritualize themselves as they're a

dead fish floating downstream. There's no spiritualizing that. Oh, Lord. Thank you, Lord. There's

nothing more depressing than get four Christians whose life is going nowhere. And they know

enough of the Bible just enough to be dangerous. And get those four in the room talking about

the goodness of God. And you quickly see a devolve into, but you know, God's will is past finding

out. And he works in mysterious ways. And right now I got no love in my life. I got no money in

my life. I got nothing in my life. My life's going nowhere. But you know, God, no. That doesn't sound

like God at all. Hallelujah. And if that reflects your life, I'm not teasing you,

but I'm coming against a mindset. See, this, you know what preaching is? It's a battle against

a mindset. That's why you want preaching that's founded in the Word of God because the only thing

that can dismantle a lie of false mindset is the Word of God that comes in like a sword and dashes

that lie to pieces. Hallelujah. All right, here's 10 things that we as stewards need to show God

where faithful and in 10 things that the Lord is watching to see if he can trust us with more.

Number one, how you handle money, even small amounts of money. Now before I became a Christian,

I thought that on this side you have God who's holy, who's just and on this side you have money,

which is nothing but evil. And the two should never be discussed in the same breath. How many of you

thought that way? I thought that way. You thought that way. Of course, that's how we were raised. And

then I start reading the gospels and Jesus is always talking about money and he's always connecting

it to the heart. There is in the scriptures a heart money connection. Jesus is saying how you

handle filthy lucre, how you handle unrighteous man is indicative of what's happening on the inside.

And if you're dishonest with money, you're dishonest on the inside. If you're stingy with money,

that's the condition of your heart. And so how we handle money, God is actually keeping an eye on.

How you handle your money, you might say, what do you mean? What's wrong with the way I handle money?

I don't even have a lot of money. So it's not like I'm even handling money. It just seems to go

right by me. What is the Lord looking for? Well, he's looking for how you manage what you've been

given. Do you tie on your increase? What he has given you? Do you honor him with the first?

Are you helping relieve suffering in any way right now with what little you have?

Or are you of that mentality that one day you'll give one day when your ship comes in?

You know how many times I've heard that one day? That day never comes. If you're not giving with

a little, you won't be giving with them much. If you're waiting for your ship to come in,

but you've never sent any ships out, you're going to be waiting on those docks a very long time.

No ship is coming in because you never sent any out. I remember just to give you, here's my mom

as a witness. All right, you remember that first Sunday going to City Light Church. I hope you don't

mind me because right now front row in front of everybody. All right, but just raise your hand if

this is true. Remember I had that whole Costco? I had your granny cart and I had her granny cart

load. You know how many people were on staff at City Light? Zero. Just me as a volunteer pastor and

I have a granny cart loaded up with Costco stuff and it was the church's first purchase. The church

has just just became a non-for-profit and it was going to be our first service and the church

bank account was open and then the church got a Costco cart and the church loaded up this granny

cart and my mom wasn't really even paying attention, but as I'm taking it into the church,

she needed paper towels, bounty towels, and we had a big case of them. It's, oh, here's one and

you took it out, right? Just raise your hand so they know I'm not lying. And I, and I, she wasn't,

she just, she's a mom. She thought paper towels, me, need paper towels, here's paper towels,

and I went, no! She was like, why? They're the church's paper towels. You can't use them for your

home. The church bought those, she's laughing. Because in our culture, in our country, then none of

that would even be considered. You know, in a lot of other countries also, be careful when you

give overseas because when the pastor says, give to my church, what he actually means is me,

because I ask, okay, show me the church bank account. Well, here's my account. No, the church

is bank account. Well, here's my account. No, you're you, your Bob. And the church is something else.

Why are you not making any distinction or barrier between the two? That's a problem.

And when you start compromising in the little, you'll eventually end up compromising with the

much. So right away, we laid out a thing. I'm not, if I need tissues, I'm not accidentally letting

this drop into my briefcase. Amen. The Lord looks at that stuff. He looks at how honest you are

and the little things and how you handle money, how you give. You cannot be contending for abundance

and prosperity if you skim off the top in any area. I mean, how crazy is that? And how crazy with

that be to be a tither and someone who gives offerings and then still skim off the top. You talk

about a walking contradiction. God sees right through that. Number two. Oh, Lord, you know,

I'm just, because you often don't hear this stuff when it comes to teaching on God's abundance and

prosperity. It's usually presented in a way where it very little depends on you except to give and

believe. God's going to make it right. The choir behind me is going, he's going to make it right.

And I'm just saying, just believe and give, give till it hurts and God's going to make it.

No, there is a little nuance to that. Yes, giving very important faith, very, very important.

But some adjustments on the inside have to take place because God loves you too much to blow you

out of the water. He's looking at you, how you speak your tone, your honesty, your idle words. Matthew

1237, Jesus says, for by your words, you will be justified. And by your words, you will be condemned.

That means being honest, not exaggerating. Christians, especially in ministry land, can be big time

exaggerators. You know, how many times some pastor will say, our church is 2,000 people and I go

where are they? If it's, you left off a zero. Pastors are infamous. They're always speaking

pastorally. What happened in the past? That would be like me today going, you know, we got six

weekend services and four locations and what you did pre 2020, but that's now in the past. I can't

reference those things pastorally. Evangelists even worse. They speak evangelistically.

Everything. Anytime I hear an evangelist, unfortunately, now I have to subtract 90% from whatever

number they're talking about. And that's why when you find an honest, integrity, sincere evangelist,

they're like, what a breath of fresh air. This doesn't help anybody exaggerating like that. It

actually just brings down the IQ of the entire room and then causes us all to try to believe a lie

together. So it's like I can't do it. This is how cult start. We're all going to just pretend

that thing happened. It didn't happen. And what? Got an evangelist colleague, let's call him.

He was given a jet. Legitimate. I know I said that like it just happened and just had it.

That actually is an uncommon thing. He needed it and he was given a seven million dollar jet. Isn't that

awesome? And the person paid for fuel, you know, sometimes to put that thing up into the skies just

25,000. And the Lord provided and it was a wonderful story of God's abundance. And by the way,

if you're bothered, this is crazy to me. Some people you can feel it in the room because I said

evangelist and jet in the same sentence. If you're bothered by that, I hope you get just as

bothered when you watch the Kardashians take off in their jet. When you watch your favorite hip hop

artist on his job, I hope you really get bothered. I hope you get upset. Because why would you get

upset? I want to not the other. He was given a jet. But then there was this other evangelist who

the next week, he announces on social media, we were given a jet. I go, huh? So I did a little bit

deeper. Turns out he got busted. He wasn't given a jet. He leased a jet. And they confront him

and said, but you said you were given it. Well, you know, like we used our money and we gave it to

them and they gave us the jet as a, no. You smoke and mirrors lying. Who are you helping this way?

Nobody. You're actually just, you're bringing them the perception in the eyes of the world. The

world is watching. And you're failing right in front of them. Don't tell me you care about souls

and care about winning the lost when you're publicly over and over again lying. I'm not lying. Yes,

you are. You're not bending the truth. You're not slightly misrepresenting to get people in a

place of faith. You're lying and it's hurting people, not helping people. Amen. Our speech should

always be seasoned with grace. Number three, here's what the Lord is looking for. How you treat

people that cannot benefit you at all. How you treat people that cannot benefit you at all. And

do you have any people who can't benefit you at all in your life? Do you? If you don't have anyone

in your life right now that you don't need whatsoever, you're missing it. You got to have several

people in your life that can't reward you at all. Look at Jesus. He says, when you've done it,

whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me. So from the beginning,

because I was a bit of a misfit, I didn't really fit in anywhere when I got saved. And I noticed

the Christians really just loved me for me even though I couldn't do anything for them. And we

were all a bunch of misfits. It was an Asian ministry in the second floor of a church and bedstie.

That's odd right there in 1992. And we were getting saved. Youth was getting saved all over the place.

And we all really loved each other and cared for each other. And so I learned at 16 and it went

my entire life. At any given point, I had several people in my life who were like outcasts or

misfits or had nothing going for themselves. The whole purpose was so that I could be Christlike

and just give to them knowing that I could never really receive anything back from them. My reward

would be from heaven. The Lord loves that. The main advice you get today though, from seminars,

because I don't know if you've noticed, but everybody's doing seminars on how to make money,

because the number one way to make money is throwing seminars on how to make money.

Everybody's got a seminar. And they'll always tell you things like, hey, be careful with your time,

only connect and network with people who can lift you up. You know, you hear all different stats,

right? Your net worth will most closely resemble five people you spend the most time with.

So get rid of those losers and start hanging out with seven figure people. And there's just one

problem with that. It's mathematically impossible. If everybody is only close with people who can pull

them up, well, something's missing in that equation, right? You've got to have people that you can

pull up hoping for nothing in return from them. And the Lord will reward you plentifully. But I

encourage you right now have said, there should be no lonely people. I've tried, can I tell you a

secret? I've tried to help some lonely people in the church and it's different reasons for it,

but really when I uncover, when I pop the hood, and I said, you know, why don't you hang out with

someone so? And really what comes out is, well, I really want someone cooler than that as a friend,

I really, and someone actually even just recently said this to me and said, well, I feel like I'm

not successful. I can't be seen with someone like me. I want somebody higher than me. No, that's not

how it works. You're a nerd. Find someone even nerder than you. And love them. And care for them.

Be kind to them. And forget about you for a moment. And then watch what happens in a short while

what the Lord will do for you. Hallelujah. Amen.

Number four, how you use your time, Ephesians 5, 15, see then that you walk circumspeckly,

redeeming the time that means making the most of the day because the days are evil. Most people

greatly overestimate how much they can get done in a month. That ever happened to you by next

month. I'll XYZ and they never happened because we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in

a month, but we severely underestimate what we can accomplish in a year. And when we show

consistency every single day. And guess what? We have more time now than ever before. And it's

the opposite of what you hear. You usually hear that you have no time and everybody's so busy.

It used to take 90 man hours to run a house. Today takes five, 100 years ago, 90 man hours.

Just to do the laundry. I'm not even going to talk about how they used to do laundry because I

get so exhausted and depressed talking about it. Baking bread. You don't even have to go

in shopping. And I remember my Saturdays with you, mom. My Saturdays were spent half the day

was spent waiting online. I almost never wait online now. You don't have to. Your favorite place

to eat, you can put your order and via app and just pick it up. So the time that we actually

have to spend on mundane things has decreased in our free time. No matter what you may think,

the reality is we have more free time as a people than ever before. And so God wants an account

of that time. And it's this weird paradox because we have more free time than before, but it eludes

us and it evades us and we mismanage it. So we feel like we're constantly busy, but we're

actually nowhere near as busy as a few generations ago. And so I encourage you to submit your time

to the Lord. You say, how do I know when I'm wasting my time? How you know almost anything? You're

in relationship with the Lord. I'm not preaching an intellectual sermon here. I'm preaching to your

spirit. You know, when you're spending time with the Lord and you're inviting him into your life,

you should know. Like this summer, we normally, my family and I, we go away for the summer. I take

them to Montenegro. And I love taking them to Montenegro because then my mom comes to Montenegro

that I can pawn my kids off to mom and then take my wife and you can use Montenegro as a base of

operations flying to Rome, flying to Vienna. It's like flying into Washington DC, you know? It's

nothing once you're already there. And I started working on the same plan and I just felt like, hmm,

I couldn't get the peace. When I tried to, in little ways, I tried to picture, normally I

picture family vacation time in July. I could see it like a movie vividly. I couldn't see it.

Why, Lord? I just didn't, so I cancel the whole thing. We're not going. We're not going to be going.

I don't, why, why aren't you going? Because I really, really value the will of God. I really,

really value only doing what I see him do and saying what I hear him do. And I'm very, very

terrified of being outside of the will of God. The year Victor was born, he was two months old

in 2014. I went off to Liberia, Africa in the middle of the Ebola epidemic. I never thought twice

about it. I wasn't concerned for one second. Why? Because I knew the Lord wanted me there. I

knew that I knew. He led me from the inside out in my spirit. I knew I'd be okay. Never, ever

concern me that I would pick something up and bring it back to my, at the time, two-month-old

baby boy to my wife. No, because the Lord was with me. But if I don't sense like he's going to be

with me, I don't even want to leave my house. Let alone go to a foreign country with foreign

spirits, foreign governments, foreign laws, no way. What's the same way with how you spend your

time is what I'm getting at. If you're going in a particular direction and your peace is leaving

you and you don't sense the satisfaction of the Lord, then it may be time to go back to the

drawing board with the Lord and say, Lord, how can I adjust the way I'm spending my time? There

could be a more fruitful way. And then when you submit your time to him, he will double it and

triple it and compound your efforts so that you can put an hour's work in and it feels like you've

put in a hundred hours of work in. Come on, shout amen if you believe it. Hallelujah.

Number five, God is watching this. How you respond to correction.

And the verse is Proverbs 12-1. That's it. Look it up in Proverbs 12-1. I just

chopped off a few of the words before that, but that's an unedited meat of the verse right there.

He who hates correction is stupid. Welcome to City Light Church. If this is your first time,

so glad you could join us. You should have people in your life that can bring loving correction to

you. You should have people in your life that maybe have hard time with the loving part, but

nevertheless still bring correction to you because the Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend.

I found earlier in my life as a Christian, no correction was good correction. And I would say

things like, well, it wasn't what they said. It was how they said it. Then God would send me

someone who said it just perfectly and I still didn't like it. You want the gift of correction

to be presented with three bows. And it's a present with three bows and you go, what, no glitter sprinkled

on top of the bows. None of those bells hanging off. It doesn't matter what form it comes in, but always

heed correction, especially when it's somebody that's in relationship with you, that knows you,

that knows your life trajectory, that knows your goals, your ambitions, somebody who's in spiritual

authority over you. And they correct. I do very little correcting. Actually, I do a lot of

correcting. 99% of it is right now. It's while I'm preaching. Very little outside of this.

But when I do, I found that somebody could be sweet as pie for years until you correct them.

And then the real person comes out, oftentimes gnashing at you with their teeth.

Do you think I'd ever correct you because I'm bored? I just need to fill up the day a little bit.

I'm not getting enough drama. I need to spice things up by just randomly correcting you. Trust me.

That's something I need to do. It's something that I'm compelled to do if I ever do it by the Lord.

I would pay attention to that. My pastor to this day, he can speak correction into my life.

Not even knowing all the facts. I'll immediately stop and go,

let me just without any prejudice, let me receive everything he's saying.

In the multitude of counselors, the Bible says there is safety. What I found is people will

set their whole life up so that they're never ever corrected. They will organize their whole

friend circle so that they're never ever challenged, never ever corrected. People won't stay and

really plug into a church because they're afraid. Eventually, they'll be known. Accountability will

be required and they may be corrected and they just can't handle that. I'm sorry that you went

through such a traumatic time, truly as a child, whatever brought you to this place where you didn't

get enough love mixed in with the correction. And now as soon as someone corrects you, there you're

dead. That's a you problem. That's something you've got to go before the Lord because I have never

known. I've seen a play out in Bible school. You could learn a lot in Bible school. There were 300

of us when we started out. And I've never seen those that couldn't be corrected. None of them ever,

ever went anywhere in ministry. Ever. Not one example.

It feels so Catholic in here. I might start chanting and Latin any moment now.

It's quiet. I can receive correction better than you can.

Number six. God is keeping an eye so he can trust you with more. Looking at number six,

what you do when no one is watching. Matthew 6.4 says your father who sees in secret will himself

reward you openly. So you can actually have fun doing things and not telling a single person about

them. Like back in the day, we would go out and we would just buy the homeless sandwiches back

and really when we first got saved as teenagers. We're sorry. Friday night. We have our youth

meeting Saturday night. We're all going out and we would go to Penn station. Penn station in the

90s was wall to wall. You think it's bad now. Anybody who's really been in NYC from the early 90s?

You know no matter how bad they say New York is, this is paradise compared to the 80s and early 90s.

It was wall to wall homeless people and we would just do it and then never ever mention it again.

Today, what do you get? Somebody buys a homeless person a cup of coffee and they quickly come around

and they take the selfie to document what happened and tell everybody about it.

There is a reward that only comes when you don't tell anyone and Jesus said if you tell people

then you're going to get your reward which is the praises of people, a data boy, a little like,

a little comment that goes wow and you feel better but that thing is fading. It's gone after five

seconds. You know what doesn't fade after five seconds? The blessing of the Lord, the one who sees

in secret and then rewards you openly. Hallelujah. Do some things in secret. You know what we used to

have in city light, it was like a wave, this angel giving thing where people would just through

life groups and through time would find out what someone else may want and just order it on Amazon

for them anonymously. It's also a great way to get somebody's number in address.

I just got finished doing a wedding in Puerto Rico. I want to do more weddings.

See, the Lord bring more marriages and weddings and cross pollination from the left side of the

room to the right side of the room. But doing things in secret, surprising people giving,

it actually puts you in a place where you have to believe God and at city light we have a phenomenal

tithing rate. You never get a call from me and there's no wall of remembrance that quickly becomes

a wall of forgetfulness where your family's last name is etched in. There's none of that really

and we did that by design not because we're lackadaisical but by design because it actually keeps

all of our heart motives pure. You're not giving to a church, you're not giving to a person,

you're giving to the Lord and your reward is from the Lord. Amen. That's why it's so beautiful

when you have people who've been tithing for years. They don't get a data boy in the natural.

They don't. They never get a call from anybody on staff or we never have a party in their honor.

People who are the top 10 givers, never oh, just want to say thank you back. It's exclusively

between them and the Lord and I find that the best harvest is when it's that way. Amen. Keeps our

motives pure. Oh, you're going to love number seven. Show number seven, ding, ding, ding,

how you manage sexual purity. I realized in the first service I got ahead of myself way

quickly and I need to start at a baseline by first saying and this may shock you. There is such a

thing as sexual purity that actually exists. It's a thing and you got to be alive in a time where

the majority of culture communicated to you that there actually is no guideline for sexual purity.

There is no whatever you're into that's fine. Don't judge. You know, the greatest sin

became judging, taking the whole verse completely out of context. You want to pretend you're such

and such a person and do such and such things with I don't judge. Yeah, maybe you should.

Because it's a perversion and that's what's been trying to get erased from our language that

anything is a perversion. Oh, no, you don't understand. You don't understand my journey. How could

you judge me? I do. Your journey is nasty. I do. And whatever it is, you're trying to work out in

your own mind. You know, up until five minutes ago, we had a word for that. It was called sick.

So you struggle with perversion. You need to acknowledge that. What is a perversion? What is

something that's perverted? The word perverted means distorted. Like when you look at yourself in

a fun house mirror and one arm is three times the length of another one. That's a perverted image

of yourself. Sexual perversion is engaging in sexual activities in a way that God has an ordained

and that is outside of his boundaries. And why does God set these guidelines up? You know why?

Because he's really creepy and just wants to get in your business. And if he sees you having fun,

he just wants to put the kabasha on that. That's how people think of God. That's not at all. It's

that he understands what also all of humanity understood till about five minutes ago is that sex

is not a natural act only. It is a deeply profound spiritual and supernatural act. And there is a

transfer of spiritual energy. And you don't get to just wheel that in any way you want to. There

are boundaries. There are confines to that. Pagan cultures, even godless cultures understood

that you know what you find whether it's in Latin America or in Africa or in Asia or in

the Grecian area, the Roman area. You will always find temple prostitutes outside the temples. Why?

Because it's the quickest way through sexual activity to spread spiritual energy, aka the demonic.

So getting a little bit off track here, but I think I'm hitting bulls-eye for some people.

So Satan, he really started to dilute that in the 60s and really, really put the cherry on top

in the last 10-15 years as he wore down God's idea of sexual purity and replaced it with just pure

hedonism where people are hurting themselves. And then they still can't realize that they're

hurting themselves. And a scientist who's an atheist will agree with the fact that sexual activity

pairs and bonds you to someone. Both women and men release oxytocin and other chemicals

that cause you to be bound to this person. But then you disengage and then you get bound with

someone else and then disengage and then you get bound with someone else. And you rack up

enough of those, guess what happens with that final person you settle down with and now your

pair bonding is broken. And that's why at the first sign of trouble, they bounce, they leave.

They do what they've always done which is onto the next one. It's really hurting people.

It's the only sin that God tells you to flee from. Let's just look at that verse.

Or do you not know? I mean, I'm not missing words because Paul's not

missing words. That word that's always used in the Bible, Harlet. Do you know what that word

would be today? I didn't. It's funny. I didn't want to say this in the first service. I felt

a check but now that I'm, you know, I feel like, yeah, say it so that's recorded forever.

The word would be a hoe. It's a hoe. Like, I'm not allowed to say that word but that's the word,

Harlet. Do you not know that he who was joined to a hoe is one body with her?

For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. Two will become one. And he's specifically talking

to the Corinthian church that had these temple prostitutes outside and Christians,

carnal Christians. Christians who were just, just newly saved. Christians who were living in one

of the most carnal urban areas of the then world, very, very akin to New York City. A dense,

densely populated, very, very multicultural, very, very diverse urban center. And you get a bunch

of new Christians and they don't know the rules of engagement yet. And he says this, flee sexual

immorality. It's the only sin that the Bible tells you to flee from. That word flee in the Greek,

it means to run away from as if in terror. It's actually calling back to Joseph when he was

in Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife came to him, tried to seduce him and what did our

boy Joseph do? He jumped out the window, fleets that I'm, I know where this is going to end me up.

There's an old story, Jesse DePlanter tells about a woman trying to pick him up at the airport,

years ago. Do you know the story? Yeah, this woman flirts with her and picks him up,

trying to pick him up at the airport. And Jesse's just being Jesse. He didn't know how to politely

say no. He knew he had to flee lust. So he just went, whore of Babylon, whore of Babylon, whore of

Babylon. And please note, he did not fall in sexual sin that day.

Flee sexually immorality. Because you're hurting yourself every other sin.

Don't you wish your teenage kids were here? Trust me, they'd appreciate this.

I pray, you know what? I'm actually just serving it up to you the way it was served up to me.

It really helped me. I've seen it served up other ways and you walk away confused and wondering

what is he talking about? No, you're not going to be confused after today. You're going to know,

you're going to know what I meant and what the Bible means.

Here's what they told me when I was a kid. This one, this one they told accurately,

the flower with the different, did I already say this it was at the first service?

First service, the flower with the different petals on it. And that is you and that is your

makeup, your soul, your spiritualness. You do actually have an energy and a life force.

I know it sounds new agey but it's true. And when you are sexually intimate with someone,

you give a pedal away to them. And when you're sexually intimate with someone else,

you give a pedal away to them. And after a while you're going to run out of petals,

you're just going to have a bare stem. And that's what's happening out there.

There's some, you go on on some of these things, what are the kids up to now? I can't believe I'm

that age where I'm going. Who are the kids up to? I said it as a joke but it came out too authentic.

I realized I'm now flirting. I'm crossing the boundary between joking and actually being that guy.

But you know Tinder and all that stuff. It's a bunch of stems. No petals on anymore.

It's a bunch of stems trying to get to, they have nothing to give to each other. They just

want to leach and take and then discard and try like a crackhead, try to get the same high with

the next victim. It's hurting you. Hey, good news. If you're going, oh my god, I can't believe

he's saying this. I feel like I'm the petalist one. Oh, God, I'll put a million petals back on you.

God will restore you from the inside. He will fill you up. He will cleanse you. Yes. Oh, he's

awesome like that. But quit giving yourself away so cheaply. Flea, sexual immorality, every sin

that a man does is outside the body, but he will commit sexual immorality sins against his own body.

If anyone cleanses himself, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful. Hallelujah.

Eight. God is watching how you forgive.

Mark 11, 25 to 26. Jesus said, if you do not forgive, neither will your father forgive your

trespasses. Why would Jesus say that? That you disqualify yourself from receiving forgiveness when

you won't forgive someone? I present this to you. This is my suggestion that it's not so much

that God now stops forgiving you. It's the fact that he's not continually forgiving you because

you've pulled away from his forgiveness. You've pulled away, look, to receive forgiveness from God

is not a one-time event. First, John 1.9, it says, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses him. That's

the perpetual tense. Cleanses him from all unrighteousness. You know how you are as a Christian?

It's like you're walking all day long underneath the waterfall of the blood of Jesus,

constantly being in a constant state of cleansing. And I'm very conscious of that waterfall.

I'm very conscious of what I deserve in the natural and then how God treats me because of the blood.

Because I'm constantly pulling on forgiveness, if I didn't forgive someone who wronged me,

I would immediately notice it. I would notice the duplicity, the discrepancy that I was being a

hypocrite. But when I forget how I'm being forgiven, then it's easy for me to get nasty and bitter

with other people. And God says, now you're disqualifying yourself.

When I say unforgiveness, when I say bitterness, resentment, when I say those words,

that first person you thought of, that's the person you got to forgive.

You know that face that popped into your head, yes you do. The one where you said,

I'll forgive everyone, just not that, that jerk that that's the one you got to forgive.

Truly release them, forgive them, and cancel all their debts. Why?

Because Jesus truly released you, forgave you, and canceled all your debts. And God wants to put,

see if he could show you in great detail what the prize at the end of the finish line is,

you'd have no problem with this. But when you can't accurately see the prize,

you're just dealing with your emotions, then it's easier to just grab a hold of those

baser things and have a scrawny, skinny spirit. Someone who's not a big forgiver,

that's how they are on the inside. They might look healthy and radiant on the outside,

but they're spirit. They're like the crypt keeper.

Look like a ghoul come back to life on the inside.

No, we need to be healthy on the inside. Quick to forgive. Love keeping no record of wrongs.

And find you a spouse that is quick to forgive. Amen. I hit the bulls eye on that one. Thank you.

Lord, just ask her. Just say how much forgiveness she'll be very happy to tell you.

She'll be very quick. She won't hold back. If you think my wife is introverted, just ask her,

how much forgiving have you had to do? She'll light up. Let me tell you.

I actually have this list right here in the scroll.

Can you imagine God entrusting somebody with a scrawny, skinny, unforgiving spirit,

who's unaware of all the crud they were forgiven of, with increase?

That's giving a bazooka to a three year old. They'll blow themselves out of the water.

Number nine, God is looking and keeping an eye on how you handle the small assignments.

He said, well done in Matthew 25, 21, well done, good and faithful servant and worship team,

you can come on up. You were faithful over a few things. So God is looking at how you do the little,

how you handle the few.

Even the things that you resent, small tasks, menial tasks, I shared once before a mental breakthrough

came to me. When I had my Chevy Spectrum 1986 paid a thousand dollars for it and never washed it

because I hated it. I used it because it was the only Flintstone mobile able to get me from

point A to point B and it did. It looked like the Flintstone mobile and I felt that at any time,

my feed would come and rip through the bottom and I would just run my way to Bible school.

You remember it, right mom? And my buddy from Bible school commented, faithful are the wounds of

a friend. He did one of these as I'm driving. He went like this on the dash.

Bro, why don't you wash your car? And I very just transparently said because I don't even want to

wash it. I hate this thing. I just needed to serve its purpose and then off to the city dump it

goes. And he said, Tom Solts, never forget him. He said, you need to take care of what God has

given you. Do you want a better car? I said, yeah, God's not going to give you a better car

until you take care of this. Now I'm coming from Queens, right? My whole, I've never, I got my

driver's license at age 23. Now I'm 24 with a car. I've never even washed the car in my life.

He said, how do I wash your car? He's like, oh, it's the best. Smell that wax on a Saturday afternoon

coming up into you. Now, so he took me right then and there to an auto zone. I got all the stuff.

I started washing that clunker, that metal ball. Washing it, waxing it. He said, he said,

it's going to look like a brand new car. I thought halfway through as I'm sweating,

oh, he lied so bad. It's still an ugly 86 Chevy spectrum. But in taking care and honoring the

little God gave me, I positioned myself for him to entrust me with more. Amen. He actually cares

and is watching what you do with the little. Love him for the little he gave you. Take care of the

little he gave you. Even assignments, tasks, do them with your whole heart. When no one's watching,

work is unto the Lord and then place your faith in him to promote you. Number 10,

God is looking at how you honor authority. Hebrews 13, 17, do you know at work your boss is your

authority. Whoever said that, thank you. If everybody would just out loud manifest what they're

feeling, we'd be in a better place. Instead, everybody suppresses it, lets it cook on the inside

and I've started to feel stuff in the air. Thank you. Some honesty in the place on Memorial Day weekend.

Your boss is your authority. I mean, he may be asking you for your TPS report,

coming over your cubicle with a cup of coffee in his hand. Just five people saw that movie here

this morning, I guess. I'm not saying you need to love the person. But understand that in the

eyes of God, they're over you. And so you can't talk bad behind their back. You can't secretly

resent them. What do I do? Change your heart. Say, but they're a total jerk. I believe you.

And God knows they're a total jerk. But there's a limit. There's a distinction between how you should

speak to somebody who's an authority in your life. And by the way, you will never, ever, ever actually

have authority until you've learned how to function well and be under authority. And one of the

biggest heart breaks I see in within the church is people they've never been under authority,

but they want to have authority and they run out and make a shipwreck of their lives because

they never learned how to be under authority. When authority is unbiblical, you kick against it.

When authority is unconstitutional, you kick against it. When authority tells you to shut down

your church, you kick against that. Amen. We don't just blindly, I understand cult leaders love

verses like that. And they twist them. But there is a biblical hierarchy. There is. And something in

our culture also, God wants, not God, but culture wants to make everybody the same. And you hear that.

Oh, we're all the same. You know, there used to be a quick understanding of people in their role

and society was much, much more hierarchical. People hate that now. But you know who's very hierarchical?

God. God, he actually arranges all of his angels in a hierarchy. There's archangels at the top.

Then there's Syrophib. Then there's Cheribib. Then there's other angels, the regular ones underneath them.

And so I know who those are who are in authority over me. Do you? There should be a separation and

a distinction between how you speak of them, how you think about them, bless them, resist evil in

your heart towards them, resist hurting. You know, the Bible says he who hates his brother commits

murder. Have you ever thought about that? Why? He who hates his brother commits murder. You know who

explained that verse to me? A former witch. And she said, when I was a witch, the way we curse someone,

and she said, people think we curse someone by like being in a circle over a cauldron. And

he said, we would actually get into a circle and just think negative thoughts over the person.

We would think that he's in a car wreck. We would think that he was getting robbed. We would

think that he was sick with cancer. And she said, we would just think. And she said, we understood

that he who hates his brother commits murder. There's something you send in the spirit realm when

you're hating someone. You have to watch for that in your heart. That's why I don't hate people.

Hate sin. Hate the devil. People are troubled. They're hurting. And you can actually be repulsed.

You can make a boundary and never see him again, all without actually hating them. Amen. Hallelujah.

Pray with me, church. God, you are good. Your way is abundance. Your way is increase your way

is prosperity. And we realize that in order to be entrusted with more, there is a work that needs

to be done in us on this side of heaven. And say this out loud, everybody say, Lord Jesus,

I welcome you to grow me, to mature me, to make me more Christ like so I could contain

the great blessing you're sending into my life in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah.

This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message,

or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church,

visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today,

that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you

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